Sickle-cell Unit For Nn General?

The Reopening Of Psychiatric Ward Is Also On Board's List

August 12, 1997|By JEANNE PECK Daily Press

NEWPORT NEWS — With its patient census now just a half-dozen, Newport News General is considering opening a unit for treating people with sickle-cell anemia.

The hospital's board, which last week ousted interim administrator Alvin Bryant, also wants to reopen the psychiatric unit that closed in May, Chairman William Batts said Monday. When Bryant closed the psych unit to cut costs, he predicted it would reopen by late July or early August.

Both moves are designed to move the ailing hospital toward profitability by getting patients in the door. The hospital has faced closure since late 1996, and officials earlier this year cut jobs and emergency room hours to trim expenses.

Although Batts said plans for a sickle-cell center are in the "preliminary stages," he said that such a unit "could make Newport News General pertinent to the community."

Sickle-cell anemia affects about one in every 400 blacks. It's caused by an abnormality in the hemoglobin of red blood cells. The cells, which take on a sickle shape when deprived of oxygen, can cause tissue damage by blocking blood flow in small vessels.

"The center could be one wing of the hospital," Batts said. "You can see that in the future the hospital is not going to be a full-service hospital for 120 people. Basically, it is going to be an outpatient facility that also will provide a lot of these other specialized services."

In recent years, the 126-bed hospital has filled just 25 percent of its beds on any given day. This summer, Newport News General has filled about 4 percent of its beds, Batts said, adding that the hospital census typically drops during the summer months.

Batts added that a unit dedicated to sickle-cell patients could be eligible for federal funding. But he could not say how many patients might come to the unit for treatment, or how much it would cost to open the center.

But with the help of board members, volunteers and perhaps elected officials - Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-Newport News, has expressed interest in the plan - Batts said the hospital could become a full-service sickle-cell anemia center. Scott could not be reached for comment.

Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., has treated or screened more than 300,000 people for sickle cell at its Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center since it opened in 1972. The unit, which currently treats 80 outpatients for sickle cell, gets about $800,000 annually from the federal government, said associate director James W. Davis.

However, he said Newport News General officials shouldn't count on federal money to help them turn a profit from such a center. He said the sickle-cell unit pays Meharry about $400,000 annually in rent and other fees.

Batts said his immediate plan is to revive Newport News General's 30-bed psych unit. "We'd had a fairly decent census," he said.

The unit, which employed between seven and 12 people before it closed, could reopen with three health-care workers, Batts said. He could not say exactly when the psych unit might reopen, how much it might cost to reopen or how much money it might make for the hospital.

Paul Boynton, executive director of the Eastern Virginia Health Systems Agency, said he was surprised the unit closed. On average, he said, Newport News General's psych unit was about two-thirds full on any given day.

"That psych service should have been a moneymaker for them," Boynton said.

Batts said he has interviewed a temporary replacement for Bryant, who was fired by the board two weeks ago, but has not made an offer.

Unlike Bryant - a doctor who volunteered as the hospital's interim administrator for nearly two years - the new administrator would be paid. The new interim administrator will manage the hospital's day-to-day operations until a permanent administrator is hired, Batts said.

For now, a three-person volunteer administrative team is in charge of the hospital. One is board vice chairman Richard Wilson Jr. Batts won't name the other two.

Finding a permanent administrator has been a challenge for the hospital, which has survived bankruptcy and a series of management shakeups in the past decade.

In June, Batts said the board had culled three candidates from a list of 16. He has not revealed who they are but said at the time that two were from the Peninsula and one was from New York state. All have experience in hospital administration, but none has ever been the chief executive of a hospital.